Silent Film Actress: Maude Fealy.

Maude Fealy (March 4, 1883 – November 9, 1971), was stage and film actress who performed in nearly every film made by Cecil B. DeMille in the post silent film era.

Maude Fealy, is the daughter of actress and acting coach, Margaret Fealy. Her mother remarried to Rafaello Cavallo, the first conductor of the Pueblo, Colorado Symphony Orchestra. At the age of three, she performed on stage with her mother and went on to make her Broadway debut in the 1900 production of Quo Vadis, again with her mother.

Fealy toured England with William Gillette in, Sherlock Holmes from 1901 to 1902. Between 1902 and 1905, she frequently toured with Sir Henry Irving's company in the United Kingdom and by 1907 was the star in touring productions in the United States.

Maude Fealy performed in her first silent film in 1911 for Thanhouser Studios, making another eighteen between then and 1917, after which she did not perform in film for another fourteen years. During the summers of 1912 and 1913, she starred with the Fealy-Durkin Company that put on performances at the Casino Theatre in Denver and the following year began touring the U.S.

She co-wrote The Red Cap with Grant Stewart, a New York playwright and performer, which ran at the National Theatre in Chicago. Though she was not in the cast of that production, the plays plot revolves around the invention of a wheeled luggage carrier invented by Fealy. Other plays authored or co-authored by Fealy include: At Midnight and The Promise.

Fealy taught acting with her mother, under names, Maude Fealy Studio of Speech, Fealy School of Stage and Screen Acting, Fealy School of Dramatic Expression. By the 1930s, she was living in Los Angeles where she became involved in the Federal Theatre Project and at age 50 returned to secondary roles in film, including an uncredited appearance in, The Ten Commandments.

Jean Paige: Pioneer Actress

Born Lucille Beatrice O’Hair in Paris, Illinois, on July 3, 1895, Jean Paige’s background does not hint at a film career. Her family was deeply religious and had no interest in the theatre. After Jean had taken private acting lessons and studied acting at the Kings School of Oratory, Elocution, and Dramatic Culture in Pittsburgh, a family friend, director Martin Justice, offered the actress a screen test. With her aunt, Jean came to New York on July 25, 1917, made a test at the Vitagraph studios, and was immediately cast in a series of two-reel comedies based on O. Henry’s short stories.




Jean made her film debut in “The Discounters of Money” (1917), and within a year, she was a Vitagraph star. Jean came out to Los Angeles on Christmas Eve 1919 and there she met Vitagraph’s co-founder and current owner, Albert E. Smith. Jean Paige and Albert E. Smith married at her parent’s home in December 1920, but the actress continued with films she had agreed to make. Sweet and untemperamental, Jean did whatever was asked of her. She played in the lurid melodrama, “The Prodigal Son” (1921). She co-starred in the screen adaptation of Anna Sewell’s “Black Beauty” (1921) opposite James Morrison. The feature is important as the first to be shot entirely with panchromatic film.



Jean ended her Vitagraph and her screen career with the studio’s last major production, the swashbuckling epic, “Captain Blood” (1924) with J. Warren Kerrigan and James Morrison. Jean wears the costume to perfection but has little need to act. By 1924, Jean wasn’t interested in pictures anymore and retired from the screen.

Jean died in Los Angeles on December 15, 1990. She was 95 years old.

Silent Film Star: Marie Doro.

Marie Doro (May 25, 1882 – October 9, 1956). She was a talented, beautiful star and the few silent films of hers that survive show a gifted natural actress who was an expert on Shakespeare and Elizabethan poetry, and possessed a wicked humor.

She had portrayed the role of Oliver Twist on stage before she performed in the movie of the same name.

Was Charlie Chaplin's first love as he describes in his book, 'My Autobiography'.

Billie Rhodes: Pioneer Actress.

Despite having appeared in some 200 films, Billie Rhodes is completely forgotten today, even by the film buffs. Born Levita Axelrod in San Francisco on August 15, 1894, Billie had a brief stage career in stock and a tour on the Orpheum circuit. She entered films with the Kalem Company at the suggestion of director George Medford. Billie made her screen debut in the two-reel drama, “Perils of the Sea” (1913). At the close of her Kalem contract, Billie began to sing in nightclubs.




It wasn’t long before comedy producer Al Christie asked Billie to come over to his studio. Beginning in 1915, Billie was to appear in one comedy a week, under the direction of Al Christie, who was releasing his films through the Universal-controlled Nestor Company. Within a short time, Billie was being billed as “The Nestor Girl.” Billie was also seen in a minor role in Christie’s first feature-length production, “Mrs. Plum’s Pudding” (1915). When Christie entered independent production in the summer of 1916, he took Billie with him, and she was the star of his first independent production, “A Seminary Scandal” (1916).


A comedian by the name of “Smiling Billy” Parsons persuaded Billie to leave Christie and embark on independent production. He starred her in a series of Capitol Comedies released through Goldwyn and a six-reel feature, “The Girl of My Dreams,” released by First National, all in 1918. The following year, Parsons starred Billie in three feature films, “Hoop-La,” The Lamb and the Lion,” and “The Blue Bonnet.” Parsons also married Billie on February 12, 1919, but it was a short-lived relationship as he died on September 28, 1919. The death of Billy Parsons came at a bad time for Billie because there was no one to guide her and later feature films like “Miss Nobody” (1920), “His Pajama Girl” (1921) and “Fires of Youth” (1924) did nothing for her career and were commercial and critical failures. Billie remarried in 1920, and in the mid-1920’s, she went back to the stage and to night club entertaining. Billie died on March 12, 1988. She was 93 years old.

Ethel Grandin: Pioneer Actress

Winsome and diminutive, Ethel Grandin was among the first and most popular of the early screen stars. Born in New York City on March 3, 1894, Ethel had gone on stage in 1900, and appeared with Joseph Jefferson in “Rip Van Winkle.” In 1910, with her mother, Ethel went down to the American Biograph studio and was interviewed by D.W. Griffith. When the director pulled up Ethel’s dress and inspected her legs, she began to pout and sulk. Griffith explained to Ethel that he wanted to make sure she did not have bowlegs. Griffith’s behavior outraged Ethel so much that she refused to return to the studio the next day. Instead, Ethel and her mother went to Carl Laemmle’s IMP Company and was seen by Thomas H. Ince. Mary Pickford was about to leave the company, and Ince saw something of a similarity between Ethel and Mary, although she lacked the latter’s personality. Coincidentally, Ethel played Mary’s sister in IMP’s “The Toss of the Coin” (1911).





When Ince decided to enter independent production with the New York Motion Picture Company, he invited Ethel to come to California with him as his leading lady. Also in the group was cinematographer Ray Smallwood, who would later become a director and whom Ethel married in 1912. In 1913, Carl Laemmle asked Ethel to return to his company, along with her husband Ray Smallwood. Ethel was the company’s leading star, billed as “The Imp of the Imp Company.” For Laemmle, Ethel starred in both Western and comedy shorts, and she played the title role in IMP’s two-reel adaptation of “Jane Eyre” (1914).

Ethel also starred with Matt Moore and Jane Gail in George Loane Tucker’s production of “Traffic in Souls” (1913), a melodrama of white slavery, produced in secrecy without Laemmle’s approval. The total budget of the film was less than $6,000, raised by Tucker, director Herbert Brenon and others. Aside from the white slavery theme and what that implies, there is nothing sexual in the film.

“Traffic in Souls” (1913) is important as one of America’s first feature-length productions and for its semi-documentary quality with exteriors on the streets of New York City and for an innovative panoramic shot. In 1914, Ethel and Smallwood left Laemmle and formed their own production company, the Smallwood Film Corporation, operating out of a rental studio at Central Park West and Amsterdam Avenue in New York City. The company was relatively short-lived, and in 1915, Ethel retired from the screen in order to take care of her infant son. When Smallwood was hired by Metro to head its camera department, Ethel came with him back to Los Angeles. Smallwood turned to direction in the early 1920’s, and Ethel returned briefly to the screen with “Garments of Truth” (1921), “The Hunch” (1921), and “A Tailor-Made Man” (1922).

As the years progressed, Ethel lost the ability to speak. It was as if she had literally regressed to being once again a silent star. Ethel died on September 27, 1988. She was 94 years old. Even though Ethel Grandin is largely forgotten today, her most notable film, “Traffic in Souls” (1913) is available on dvd and it’s worth a look.

Mignon Anderson: Pioneer Actress

A tiny woman who was as unworldly as many of the ingénues she had played at Thanhouser, Mignon Anderson was one of the top stars of the pioneering Thanhouser Film Corporation in New Rochelle, New York, in the early teen years.











Mignon was born into a theatrical family in Baltimore, Maryland, on March 31, 1892. Her father, Frank Anderson was prominent on stage until his death in 1914, and he found roles for his daughter with a number of legendary theatre personalities. Mignon started as an artist’s model, and met people who were working in the picture business. She was eventually invited to go to the Thanhouser Company and meet theatrical entrepreneur Edwin Thanhouser. Mignon’s screen career began at Thanhouser in “Robert Emmett” (1911). Thanhouser advertised Mignon as “The Second Mary Pickford” and she was put under contract for six years. Mignon’s most memorable film for Thanhouser was “The Mill on The Floss” (1915).



















In 1916, Mignon married a fellow Thanhouser player, Morris Foster, and the couple left the studio to join Ivan Productions, created by Ivan Abramson. Abramson specialized in exploitation films, and Mignon starred for him in “The City of Illusion” (1916). In January 1917, Mignon moved on to Universal, where she worked with several directors, including two of its most prominent female filmmakers, Lois Weber, whom she starred for in “Even As You and I” and Ida May Park. By 1918, Mignon had left Universal, and for the remainder of her relatively short film career she worked as a freelance player. Her last screen appearance was “Kisses” (1922) for Metro. Mignon died on February 25, 1983. She was 90 years old.

Although largely forgotten today, Mignon Anderson was another pioneer actress that made a significant contribution to early American cinema.

Florence LaBadie: Pioneer Actress

Florence LaBadie was one of the most beautiful and talented actresses of her era. Yet today, more than ninety years after her death, her name is completely forgotten.






Florence was born Florence Russ in Manhattan on April 27, 1888. Her mother, Marie Russ, gave her up for adoption to Joseph and Amanda LaBadie, who raised her as a pampered only child. In 1908, when Florence and her parents were living in New York’s Upper West Side, she began her acting career.

Fellow actress Mary Pickford introduced Florence to Biograph’s D.W. Griffith in the summer of 1909, where she picked up several bit parts. Among her most noticeable roles was in the two-reel “Enoch Arden” (1911). By the summer of 1911, Florence decided to look around at more nurturing studios. Florence took the train up to the three-year-old Thanhouser Film Corporation in New Rochelle, New York. The studio manager Dave Thompson gave her a polite brush-off, and she returned to Biograph. Less than a month later, Edwin Thanhouser himself spotted Florence in one of her Biograph roles and asked her to join Thanhouser. Among Florence’s early Thanhouser films were “Cinderella” (1911), “Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde” (1912), and “The Star of Bethlehem” (1912).

























In 1912, Charles Hite purchased Thanhouser and was named president of the company. Under Hite’s leadership, the company’s fortunes continued to skyrocket. Early in 1914, Florence was given the leading role in the twenty-two part “The Million Dollar Mystery,” cementing her position as her studio’s top female star. Florence made another twenty-two films in 1915. She occasionally rode a motorcycle to the studio, and she took aviation lessons on Long Island. On August 22, 1914, Charles Hite, only thirty-nine years old, died in a car accident. Hite’s death and the failure of the expensive serial “Zudora” put the studio on a slow decline, and it began releasing films via Pathe. Florence made only thirteen films in 1916 and 1917, as Thanhouser began to wind down its operations. In the summer of 1917, she appeared in a war drama called “The Man Without a Country.” Shortly after its completion, she and her boyfriend, Daniel Carson Goodman, took off on a motor trip. On August 28, outside Ossining (about thirty miles north of Manhattan), the car’s brakes failed on a hill. Florence’s injuries were mortal, and she lingered painfully in the hospital for two months before succumbing to internal injuries on October 13, 1917. Goodman survived the wreck, and less than a year after Florence’s death, Edwin Thanhouser sold the studio, and it ceased production.

Even though Florence LaBadie is forgotten today, many of her Thanhouser shorts such as “Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde” (1912), “Petticoat Camp” (1912) and “The Evidence of the Film” (1913) are available on dvd. Florence’s last film, the sixty minute “The Man Without a Country” (1917) is also available on dvd.

Florence LaBadie was a pioneer actress and female daredevil that should be remembered for her significant contribution to early cinema.

Kathlyn Williams: The First Serial Heroine

Although Pearl White, with her “Perils of Pauline,” is generally thought of as the first serial queen, that title actually belongs to Kathlyn Williams. The first widely popular serial was “The Adventures of Kathlyn,” the first segment of which premiered on December 29, 1913.





Kathlyn Williams was born in Butte, Montana, on May 31, 1888. She studied drama at Wesleyan University before making her film debut with the Biograph Company in 1910. Kathlyn made only three films for the company before joining the Chicago-based Selig Polyscope Company, with which she was to remain for the next six years. “The Adventures of Kathlyn” was only one of the many films Kathlyn made at Selig, but it was “The Adventures” which made her an international star and trendsetter. Kathlyn starred as an unlikely African queen menaced by villainous Charles Clary and by Selig’s cast of lions, elephants and other assorted fauna.

























From Selig, Kathlyn moved on to Paramount. Her career continued strong through the early 1920’s at Paramount, with an occasional loan-out. She was directed several times by William Desmond Taylor and both William and Cecil B. DeMille directed Kathlyn several times. She also made three films with Paramount’s star attraction, Wallace Reid. When the Paramount contract ended in 1921, Kathlyn looked older than her age and was relegated to supporting and character parts. One of her best supporting roles was as the heartless social climbing mother of Anita Page in “Our Dancing Daughters” (1928) and the unsympathetic mother of Greta Garbo in “The Single Standard” (1929). In 1950, Kathlyn was involved in a serious automobile accident that resulted in the amputation of her right leg. Kathlyn died on September 23, 1960. She was 72 years old. Even though Kathlyn Williams is largely forgotten today, she deserves to be re-discovered for venturing into early American cinema as a modern and adventurous woman at a time when the industry was dominated by men.

Arline Pretty: Forgotten Serial Heroine.

I recently “discovered” a silent film actress while I was doing some research and I thought her name, Arline Pretty, was too good to be true, but perfect for a silent film star. After going through her filmography, I decided that a tribute would be most appropriate to an actress that found success doing serials and was a leading lady to Douglas Fairbanks, Sr.






















Arline Pretty (her real name) was born in Philadelphia on September 5, 1885 and was educated in Washington, D.C., where she was a member of the Columbia Players. She wanted to be a Broadway star but instead was lured to Tampa, Florida, to appear in local films aimed at promoting the city as a production center. Arline was briefly with Universal and then joined the Vitagraph Company in 1915.



Arline starred in Vitagraph’s serial, “The Secret Kingdom” in 1917. She made an appealing serial heroine and followed “The Secret Kingdom” with “The Hidden Hand” (1917) and “A Woman in Grey” (1920), both released by Pathe. The serials made Arline tremendously popular and she received thousands of fan letters and cards. Arline was also a leading lady to Douglas Fairbanks, Sr. in “In Again-Out Again” (1917).

In the 1920’s, Arline’s career was generally limited to second female leads in minor productions. She did appear in a couple of Metro films starring Viola Dana. Arline’s last silent film was “Virgin Lips” (1928) produced by Columbia. Arline died on April 14, 1978. She was 93 years old.

Even though Arline Pretty is largely forgotten today, her pioneering achievements in film made a lasting and significant contribution to early American cinema.

Silent Film Star: Vola Vale.

Vola Vale(February 12, 1897 - October 17, 1970), she was thought of as one of the screen's most beautiful women. She began her career in amateur theatricals in New York.

Her first movie experience was with Biograph, with film director D.W. Griffith. After a month of playing small parts, Vola was offered a genuine role and was soon she performing in short reel films for Biograph.

With Sessue Hayakawa she made, Each To His Kind (1917). Before filming began it was decided that the name Smith was too common to be used by a motion picture star. She changed her professional name to Vola Vale.

She was a member of Our Club, a group of seventeen of Hollywood's baby cinema stars. Mary Pickford served as honorary president. Fellow members were Mildred Davis, Helen Ferguson, Patsy Ruth Miller, Clara Horton, Gertrude Olmstead, Laura La Plante, Virginia Fox, Colleen Moore, ZaSu Pitts, Lois Wilson, May McAvoy, Gloria Hope, Virginia Valli, Carmel Myers, Edna Murphy, and Carmelita Geraghty.

Vola Vale Films:

1932 Tomorrow and Tomorrow
1927 Black Tears
1926/II Home Sweet Home
1926 The Sky Pirate
1926 Two Can Play
1926 Her Big Adventure
1925 Little Annie Rooney
1925 Heartless Husbands
1925 Who Cares
1924 The Mirage
1923 The Midnight Flower
1923 Mothers-in-Law
1923 The Man Between
1923 Soul of the Beast
1923 Crashin' Thru
1922 Good Men and True
1921 White Oak
1921 The Duke of Chimney Butte
1921 Singing River
1920 The Iron Rider
1920 Someone in the House
1920 The Purple Cipher
1920 A Master Stroke
1920 Alias Jimmy Valentine
1920 Overland Red
1920 Common Sense
1919 Someone Must Pay
1919 Six Feet Four
1919 Hornet's Nest
1919 Hearts Asleep
1919 A Heart in Pawn
1919 Happy Though Married
1918 The Locked Heart
1918 Wolves of the Rail
1917 Zollenstein
1917 The Silent Man
1917 The Lady in the Library
1917 The Son of His Father
1917 The Bond Between
1917 Mentioned in Confidence
1917 The Winning of Sally Temple
1917 Each to His Kind

Silent Film Star and Producer: Norma Talmadge.

Norma Talmadge (May 2, 1894 – December 24, 1957), was an actress and film producer of the silent era. A major box office draw for more than a decade, her career peaked in the early 1920s. She is best known for her films:

Smilin’ Through (1922). A silent film based on the 1919 play by Jane Cowl and Jane Murfin, also named Smilin' Through. Cast: Norma Talmadge, Harrison Ford, and Wyndham Standing. It was co-written and directed by Sidney Franklin, who also directed the more famous 1932 remake at MGM. The film was produced by Talmadge and her husband Joseph M. Schenck for her company, the Norma Talmadge Film Corporation. The story was very popular and was filmed twice. Once in 1932 with Norma Shearer and again 1941 with Jeannette MacDonald.

Norma Talmadge, plays a Irish girl who wants to marry the son of the man who killed her uncle's fiancee on their wedding night. Will Family come between true love?

Secrets (1924), is a silent film directed by Frank Borzage. The film is based upon a 1872 opera called Don César de Bazan.

The film opens in the present with a 75-year-old Mary Carlton, who is concerned about her husband John's illness. Mary sits down and begins to read her diary, now the film jumps to 1865 in the time she first fell in love with John but, was worried about her family disapproval of him, because of their social differences.

When her parents find out about their relationship her fears are realized and they forbid her to ever see him again. Her father William locks her in her room. It is not long before she receives a letter from John, who tells her that he has lost his job. Later that night, John sneaks into her room by the balcony and tells her that he is leaving for America and she decides to go with him.

By the time it's 1870, They are very poor even though John works all day. Mary gives birth to a son. One day, a gang threatens to kill John and his family, eventually John defeats the gang.

By 1888, Mary is 39 and is beginning to have contact with her family and they are financially doing better. She is heartbroken when she finds out that John has a mistress, Estelle, who confronts Mary, with the fact she is in love with her husband. Mary gives her husband a divorce, but he doesn't want to leave her. Will they reunite and will John ever recover from his illness?

The Lady (1925). A young woman marries the son of a British aristocrat. Her husband, who has been disinherited by his father, loses all his money gambling in casinos and dies, leaving her penniless and with a son. When her father-in-law tries to get custody of her child, she leaves him with a couple she trusts, but later she can't find the people she left him. Will she ever find her son again?

Fun Facts:

Her younger sisters Constance Talmadge and Natalie Talmadge were also movie stars. Talmadge married millionaire and film producer Joseph Schenck and they began their own production company.

Talmadge was one of the most glamorous film stars of the twenties, she retired a very wealthy woman.

In 1927, Norma Talmadge started a famous Hollywood tradition when she accidentally stepped into wet cement in front of Grauman's Chinese Theater.

Silent Film Star: Corinne Mae Griffith. "The Orchid Lady of the Screen".

Corinne Mae Griffith (November 21, 1894 – July 13, 1979), she was one of the most popular film actresses of the 1920s and was considered the most beautiful actress of the silent screen. Griffith, began her acting career at the Vitagraph Studios in 1916. She later moved to First National. In 1928, she had the starring role in the film, The Garden of Eden. A film about Toni Le Brun, a Viennese singer, who becomes a wardrobe mistress of a Monte Carlo nightclub. Toni falls in love with Richard, but she comes to believe he is only after her money..

Please click here to view Silents Garden of Eden, movie review.




The next year in 1929, Griffith received an Academy Award nomination for her role in the film, The Divine Lady. The story is about the romance between Emma, Lady Hamilton, and British war hero Admiral Horatio Nelson.



This video is from Griffith's first sound film, Lilies of the Field, was released in 1930. This performance is called, "The Mechanical Ballet".



Unfortunately, Griffith's voice did not record well. After performing in one more motion picture, the British film Lily Christine in 1932, she retired from acting. She returned to the screen in 1962 in the low-budget melodrama, Paradise Alley.

Silent Film Star: "The Vamp", Theda Bara.

Theda Bara ( July 29, 1885 – April 13, 1955), was a very popular silent film actress of her era, and one of cinema's earliest sex symbols. Her femme fatale roles earned her the nickname "The Vamp". The term "vamp" soon became a popular slang term for a sexually predatory woman.

Please click here to learn more about Theda Bara.



Theda Bara made more than 40 films between 1914 and 1926, complete prints of only six still exists: A Fool There Was (1915) and ending with The Lure of Ambition (1919). The phenomenal success of A Fool There Was gave William Fox the money to found Fox Film Corporation, while the ensuing films ensured the studio's success.

At the height of her fame she was one of the most popular movie stars, ranking behind only Charlie Chaplin and Mary Pickford. Bara's best-known roles were as the "vamp", although she attempted to avoid typecasting by playing wholesome heroines in films such as, Under Two Flags and Her Double Life. She also performed as Juliet in a version of Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet. Although Bara took her craft seriously, she was too successful as an exotic "wanton woman" to develop a more versatile career.

Most of Bara's early films were shot on the East Coast, at the Fox Studios in Fort Lee, New Jersey. The rise of Hollywood as the center of the American film industry forced her to relocate to Los Angeles to film the epic, Cleopatra (1917), which became one of Bara's biggest hits. No known prints of Cleopatra exist today, but numerous photographs of Bara in costume as the Queen of the Nile have survived.

Between 1915 and 1919, Bara was Fox studio's biggest star but, tired of being typecast as a vamp, she allowed her five-year contract with Fox to expire. Her final Fox film was The Lure of Ambition (1919). Her career suffered without Fox studio's support, and she did not make another film until, The Unchastened Woman (1925) for Chadwick Pictures Corporation. Bara retired after making only one more film, the short comedy, Madame Mystery (1926).

Out of her 40 films, only a few that are completely intact: The Stain (1914), A Fool There Was (1915), East Lynne (1916), The Unchastened Woman (1925), and two short comedies for Hal Roach. In addition to these, a few of her films remain in fragments including Cleopatra (just a few seconds of footage).



A clip thought to be from The Soul of Buddha, and a few other unidentified clips featured in a French documentary, Theda Bara et William Fox (2001). Most of the clips can be seen in the documentary The Woman with the Hungry Eyes (2006).

She was well known for wearing very revealing costumes in her films, which could still be considered risque by today's standards, more than 90 years later. Such outfits were banned from Hollywood films after the Production Code started in 1930, and then was more strongly enforced in 1934.

Silent Film Star: Anita Page.

Please click here to learn more about Anita Page.

Silent Film Star: Virginia Valli.

 

Fun Fact: Was a stenographer before becoming an actress.

Please click here to learn more about Virginia Valli.